Geruchtvorming op Twitter rondom overval juwelier Deurne

Rumour construction in Twitter Discourse: Lessons for media reporters.Petra Sneijder Baukje StinesenMaartje Harmelink Annette Klarenbeek

Etmaal van de Communicatiewetenschap, 27 januari 2017

Research Group Cross-Media Communication in the Public Domainwww.publab.hu.nl

date27/01/17

subject Rumour construction in Twitter discourse

Literature

Social media are increasingly important during crisis situations. They offer a platform for citizens to find information and to express their concerns

(Takahashi, Tandoc & Carmichael, 2015).

The spread of rumours on social media is an important downside of the use of social media during crisis situations

(Alexander, 2014)


date27/01/17


Literature

There is still a lack of attention for the discursive aspects of rumour construction:

What is the role of language in the construction and feeding of rumours, how are rumours handled in conversations?

(Stinesen, Sneijder & Klarenbeek, 2016).


date27/01/17


Case: robbery of a jewellery store

• A case study on Twitter discussions on the robbery of a jewellery store in Deurne (the Netherlands)


date27/01/17


Why this case?

• ‘minicrisis’; small number of victims or material damage, high social impact (Wijckhuijs & van Duin, 2015)

• Media were accused of reporting about the case in a factual manner too early (Pleijter, 2014)

• The prosecutor indicated that the handling of the jeweller’s wife was a matter of self-defence just one day after the robbery


date27/01/17


Questions

How did language play a role in the construction of the events as factual rather than uncertain?

• Which are the implications for the domains of media reporting and crisis communication?


date27/01/17


Research perspective

Discursive psychology:

- Natural conversations as data (face-to-face or social media)

- Focus on the effects of talk / what does talk do

- Focus on dilemmas of stake: how is a certain version of events related to a particular concern of the speaker?


date27/01/17


Methodology

‘scraping’ method - collecting information automatically using search terms, displaying interactional aspects of these tweets as well (such as reactions and retweets)

search term #Deurne in social media monitoring tool OBI4WAN shows an increase of Twitter activity until 21:00.

data base containing 727 tweets (including 187 retweets), appearing between 17:58 and 21:00


date27/01/17


Methodology


date27/01/17


Methodology

• patterns of language use coded these with ATLAS.ti.

• discursive analysis: determine which discursive strategies were used

• ‘deviant cases’ were studied, showing features that confirm the patterns in a specific way (see Mazeland, 2003)


date27/01/17


Results

Construction of factuality:

- Normalizing the events- Evaluating the events (rather than discussing the truth value)- Upgrading the laudable character of the events- Anticipating consequences

Deviant cases- References to the uncertain character and criticism towards the

positive reactions were formulated indirectly or accounted for


date27/01/17


Results: Normalizing the events

FRAGMENT 1

1. @Vincent: Well, that’s the occupational hazard, robbers.. #Deurne

((8 reactions omitted))

2. @Bernhard: @Vincent it’s like that. Walk on people, nothing wrong here.


date27/01/17


Results: Evaluating the events

FRAGMENT

1. @HartvNL: The 2 who died at the robbery in #Deurne

2. are the robbers. 3. @Bas: @HartvNL Aaaaahhhhh very good!!!!!!! Should4. have stayed away from someone else’s stuff. 5. Respect for this lady!!!!!!!!!


date27/01/17


Results: Anticipating consequences

FRAGMENT 4

1. @Ben: Wife of the owner #Jeweller in #Deurne, Brabant, shoots 2. robbers to death. Hopefully she won’t get punished. Robbers take this 3. risk!

((4 reactions omitted))

4. @Sander: @Ben Don’t count on it that she won’t be prosecuted. 5. That’s how it works here in the Netherlands #perpetrator cuddling


date27/01/17


Deviant cases: displaying doubt or criticism• criticism is uttered in an indirect way, in contrast to the

direct tone of voice that is presented when the events are normalized or evaluated as positive

• when criticism is formulated in a direct way, the speaker is held accountable and downplays his tone of voice in subsequent tweets

this shows that ‘deviant cases’ confirm the pattern in an alternative way


date27/01/17


Deviant cases: displaying doubt or criticism

FRAGMENT

1. @Eddy: @Lasse I only have trouble with all those ‘primitive’ 2. reactions on the Internet. I do not sympathize with the robbers by3. the way. #deurne


date27/01/17


Conclusions

• rather than discussing the reality status of the events, participants were constructing their assessments of the events

• the way criticism was formulated shows that it was increasingly difficult to display a critical stance on the alleged events or the way they were being discussed


date27/01/17


Implications

the study helps to identify / recognize the subtle ways in which a certain reality is taken for granted in discussions on social media (media)

the discussions also demonstrate the way social media steer the public debate (see Broersma & Graham, 2013)

the study indicates the need for responding timely and appropriately in times of crisis to reduce social anxiety (crisis communication)


date27/01/17


Implications


date27/01/17



Twitter.com/Publab

Storify.com/PubLab

slideshare.net/PubLab

Facebook.com/PubLab FCJ

Geruchtvorming op Twitter rondom overval juwelier Deurne

Education

Transcript of Geruchtvorming op Twitter rondom overval juwelier Deurne